2007: A pig of a year?

It's fair to say that 2007 wasn't one of the UK pub trade's best years.

Smoking bans, the worst summer for years and waning consumer confidence; all combined to help create The Bad Stuff which laid siege to the sector.

Some licensees have prospered. Some have pulled out all the stops to keep going. The more disaffected have meanwhile blamed government policies and intransigent and uncooperative landlords for their plight.

Co-operation between pub and landlord must be a key theme in 2008. Working together in the tough times ahead will be a crucial factor in determining how successful a pub can be. For some it will mean the difference between survival and going to the wall.

At a corporate level a number of companies reported decent-enough numbers, although for most the impact of The Bad Stuff has yet to feed through completely. We'll have to wait until the first trading statements early next year to begin painting that particular picture.

Meanwhile, shares in the largest listed pub operators took a hammering during the year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, only Scottish & Newcastle outperformed the FTSE All Share index during 2007.

After a flurry oh hope and expectation REITs went away for the most part, although Enterprise Inns hopes to persuade the taxman of its own proposals, while Mitchells & Butlers is still grappling with the issue of splitting out its property assets.

Whether these issues prove to be major distractions to these businesses remains to be seen.

Sadly, privately-owned operators can keep details of their trading performance to themselves, but they tell me that despite all The Bad Stuff they're doing really well. So it must be true.

Anyway, while 2007 may have been a pig for many, I trust you all have a great Christmas and a prosperous New Year!